My Son’s Super-excellent Roast Potatoes

“So it was a relief to see there has been an attempt to stir up controversy over the all-important question of roast potatoes. Nigella Lawson is a champion of goose fat for crispiness, while Heston Blumenthal favours beef dripping as ‘the vital ingredient in creating something extraordinary’….There must be scuffles in the street as Nigella supporters, with banners, clash with grim-faced Blumenthal disciples. Militant pro-parboilers must go on the march, chanting their slogans”

Oliver Pritchett, The Telegraph

Almost every week we have a roast on Sundays. And almost every time it is accompanied by roast potatoes. My son is a stickler for the quality of these – in his eyes soggy roasties are a crime. So a while ago I embarked on a series of experiments trying out the methods of famous chefs. Now our method encompasses everything learnt – possibly the most useful tip being the use of semolina which came from Nigella Lawson.

Of course, roast potatoes go perfectly with roast beef – go here for the method for making that perfectly.

Recipe for conjuring up the most perfect roast potatoes

1. use floury potatoes whose surface will fluff up – eg King Edward or Maris Piper, Desirée, Romano… Wilja is best if you can find it. For more on types of potatoes suitable for roasting follow this link.

2. ALLOW MINIMUM TWO HOURS TO MAKE THESE

3. peel the potatoes and preheat the oven to 210°C

4. cut the potatoes so they are all more or less the same size… that way they cook at the same rate.

5. run under cold running water to remove excess starch.

6. Par boil – ie put peeled cut potatoes into cold salted water, cover and bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes. When par boiling potatoes leave the peel in the saucepan to reinforce the flavour.

7. put a good dollop of goose fat* into a roasting tin and put in the top right oven to get really hot. You can use duck fat or sunflower oil if you have no goose fat to hand. Heating the fat first means they soak up less fat and crisp up better. (broad rule – 1 tblsp fat for each 450g or 1lb of potatoes).

8. Drain and let them sit steaming for about five minutes. For extra crispy potatoes allow them to cool completely before roasting.

9. Scratch the surfaces with a fork.

10. put into the roasting tin, toss until they are coated on all sides and sprinkle with salt and about the same amount of semolina.

11. leave in roasting tin for 35 mins – turn potatoes over, and turn around in the oven

12. cook in roasting tin for another 25 mins, then check again, and turn again and cook for however much longer you judge they need. They take 1 – 1½ hours.

13. once cooked DO NOT put in a low-heat warming oven. If you have an aga put the roasting tin on the aga toaster and put on the floor of the baking oven,with the cold plain shelf above. Otherwise keep them in a hotter oven, covered in foil

*some chefs think this makes the potatoes too rich, and prefer to use vegetable oil for a ‘lighter’ potato

What to do with leftover roast potatoes

This is a rather nice idea from Rose Prince’s The New English Kitchen. Slice, and fry until crisp and eat with bitter or peppery leaves such as rocket, watercress, or frisée. You can add colour by including a red pepper in the frying process and adding dabs of tapenade.